Like Guitar Wolf before it, Montreal’s CPC Gangbangs takes a primal punk-rock formula and distorts it far beyond its original shape. The result is a jagged, noisy, harried sound that hurtles forward, careering nearly out of control, then shudders with the waves of powerful emotions harnessed against its will. Touring…

When you’re young, you’ve had plenty of people telling you what you should be, but you haven’t had much time to internalize those messages. That said, Valet Park This could have been an all-girl emo-core or crust-punk band had it followed recent trends. Instead, the group’s four-song eponymous release is…

A band’s pedigree is no sure sign of the quality of its music, nor is it a sure indication of the type of music it produces today. Nonetheless, the members of the Ocean Bed have a collective resumé that undermines such notions. The act features Albuquerque music-scene veterans Johnny Cassidy,…

The members of Vitamins met as students at UNC in Greeley, Colorado. Although none of the four members is a native of that town, the influence of their surroundings made an indelible mark on their music. Those early experiences as a young band in an agricultural community permeate the storytelling…

With a name adopted from a character out of the movie Barbarella, Duran Duran is often dismissed as a disposable pop band from the ’80s — and with its slick, ridiculous videos featuring half-dressed exotic women and phallic imagery, it’s easy to understand why. Since that era, the act has…

With few bands pursuing a dark muse at the moment, it’s paradoxically refreshing to listen to this unapologetically bleak document of inner turmoil. Ken Keifer’s low baritone is surprisingly musical as he sings and cries out tales of love, betrayal, murder and existential anguish, and Karl Haikara’s hauntingly chiming guitar…

When these hellions take the stage, it’s almost as though you’re traveling back in time, getting to see the New York Dolls in their heyday, only with shorter hair and a raw songwriting style shorn of unnecessary refinements to match. Dicky Jaguar and the Five Percenters’ sound is a glorious…

Rjyan Kidwell started up Cex in 1998, when he was just sixteen years old. At seventeen, he launched the influential Tigerbeat6 label with Kid 606. By the time he was out of high school, the guy was already something of a well-known figure in underground electronic music. His early material,…

These guys aren’t exactly breaking new ground. And if you’re one of those people who have nothing good to say about the current state of music, and haven’t for the last decade, you’re not apt to like Buffalo Beard (due this Saturday, April 26, at the Larimer Lounge). But if…

The songs on David Dondero’s most recent record, Simple Love, sound as polished and hooky as anything you’re likely to hear on “modern rock” radio. The difference is, Dondero, whose voice is ever so husky and quavers with undercurrents of strong emotion, has a knack for avoiding the type of…

Although Pattern Is Movement often gets lumped in with the whole math-rock phenomenon, the Philadelphia outfit’s sound is much more organic and far less sterile and wanky than that of other groups of that ilk. Avoiding the type of instrumental solos that are more fun to play than listen to,…

Kind as Summer’s opening track, “Hanging in the Hollow,” reveals Good Housekeeping’s influence almost immediately — specifically, you’ll hear the lounge end of ’60s French pop, Stereolab and maybe a bit of Broadcast. The album’s gently chiming, resonant guitars are also reminiscent of later-era Cocteau Twins, but with greater warmth…

If you’ve been paying attention for the past several years, you know that scores of bands have been cultivating atmospheric pop music with sweeping melodic hooks. While most claim Joy Division as a predecessor, too many are diluted third-rate Radiohead clones. It might seem foolish for Overcasters (due at the…

To their credit, the members of Explosions in the Sky didn’t change the band’s name after 9/11. Instead, they kept on making the kind of explosive, pyrotechnic music that inspired it in the first place. Although the moniker might suggest an emo or post-hardcore sound, this Austin-based outfit is closer…

Nick Houde has made consistently interesting and innovative music since he came to Denver from Montrose a few years ago. Transistor Radio Sound, with its ultra-sincere indie-pop vibe, is the project for which he was most well known. When he put that act to rest, Houde formed the free-jazz outfit…

The debut release from Kevin Richard’s (Motheater) new label, Maybe Waltz EP is a compilation of Patrick Porter’s earlier recordings. Recorded in a disheveled apartment in Schenectady, New York, the songs recall the work of Nick Drake with their hushed beauty, and conjure a less angsty Elliott Smith as Porter…

Eyes Caught Fire percussionist Joel Brown’s bass drum head reads: “Keep Hope Alive.” For any other band, that might come off as a cheap slogan. But from this Colorado Springs quintet, it’s anything but. The act’s collective voice contains a dark, lustrous majesty that whispers like the specter of buried…

In an era when countless bands were emulating successful formulas from years past, the Dismemberment Plan was a refreshing departure: It wasn’t a punk band, yet it played with the furious intensity of one. And it wasn’t a funk or jazz act, but its rhythmic sophistication hinted at such influences…

Like invaders from the North Country, Greeley’s Lil Slugger is something of a shockingly unexpected surprise — but in a good way. Rather than, say, looting, raping or setting things on fire, this ferocious foursome adds credence to the notion that some of the most compelling music comes from people…